Blue chalk dark bg

Honest Marketing report - Banner image

Brands that take a stand: Marketers who match consumers’ desire for purpose come out on top 

[Get the report here](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/brands-that-take-a-stand?cta=banner)


Get more out of your customer reviews with our case studies, webinars and videos. Find the latest trends to promote your company in search and manage your online reputation.

Trustpilot Blog - Get Seen in Search

Reviews - Get Seen in Search

Why does Google care if your business has online reviews?

These days Google expects to see reviews about your business because they help search engines understand the quality of your product or service. This improves your off-page SEO, which can help you climb to the top of organic search results.

Maybe it’s because Amazon taught us to rely on ratings and reviews, or maybe it’s because we’ve always been social creatures, eager to hear about what others did when faced with similar decisions. 

Maybe it’s because Google tends to show us search results that feature reviews and ratings. 

Whatever the root cause, there’s no question that ratings and reviews help shoppers on their quest for the perfect purchase, or that they work wonders for businesses of just about any size.

Whether you need to improve your [online reputation](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/trustpilot-guide-to-social-media-reputation-management), create a [feedback loop with your customers](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/how-to-keep-existing-customers-happy-and-buying), step up your [user-generated content](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-great-examples-of-user-generated-content) game, or boost [on-site conversions](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/how-great-sites-convert-visitors-to-customers) — a review strategy can help with all of that. 

But perhaps the most underrated benefit of collecting reviews is that, when implemented properly, reviews can help Google better understand your site. That’s a huge win for organic SEO. 

Between more and more businesses emerging each day (who are, to say the least, also trying to stand out in organic search), and paid advertising becoming [less effective](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/can-online-reviews-revive-consumer-trust-in-advertising) in saturated markets, ranking well in organic search results is a true asset for any business.

When your potential customers are off consulting the internet for help making their next purchase, wouldn’t you want to put yourself right where they can see you?

## Reviews can help you rank higher in organic search results

Unlike paid advertising campaigns, which don't always [delight consumers](https://searchengineland.com/4-reasons-why-your-ad-is-fatiguing-206706), doing what you can to improve your organic Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking can really move the needle — with less risk of potential customers getting fed up with your brand.

If we had to quantify the importance of your organic search ranking, a staggering [91.5% of organic traffic](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-statistics/) share goes to sites listed on the first page of results. Don’t shoot the messenger, but if you’re not ranking anywhere near the first page of results, you’re probably not getting seen in organic search.

Make no mistake. Ranking on the first page in Google SERPs is a challenge for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and it certainly doesn’t happen overnight. The good news is that other aspects of your broader marketing strategy, like review collection, [can do double duty to help you with organic SEO](https://velstar.co.uk/velstar-asks-trustpilot-how-do-reviews-impact-seo-and-why-do-they-matter/).

### How do we know that reviews and ratings are meaningful to *the powers that be* at Google in 2020?

According to [Moz's 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors](https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors), review signals like [quantity](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/3-reasons-why-you-really-need-to-get-more-reviews), velocity, and diversity came in as the 3rd most important factor in how Google ranks local businesses in its “Local Pack” SERP. Some sources consider review signals to be even more important in 2019. That’s a pretty big deal, especially if you do a lot of local business.

And if you’re not a brick and mortar business, the SEO community believes you’ll still see serious SEO benefits from gathering reviews. Common understanding is that Google uses them to derive [brand signals](https://moz.com/blog/the-next-generation-of-ranking-signals), which can boost your site’s domain authority and eventually your position in search.

Because Google’s goal is to serve up high quality and reputable results, they’re on the lookout brand signals that can help them separate the “brands” (who, among other indicators, have proof of a satisfied customer base) from the “generics” (the sites that Google classifies as having a poor user experience).  


Brand sites versus generics 

Simply put, Google appreciates when some of the guesswork around a website’s quality is done for them, so it’s a good idea to use independent (read: trusted) online platforms to gather reviews.

## The role of reviews in off-page SEO

In answering why Google cares about online reviews, we have to touch on the role reviews play in off-page SEO. As the name suggests, off-page SEO (also called off-site SEO) refers to the actions you take outside of your actual website to impact your rankings in organic search.

This is a high level look at how it works:

Off page SEO

Off-page SEO

By incorporating some off-page SEO techniques into your overall strategy — like building a presence on social media and third-party review platforms — you signal to Google that you’re a brand.

Most businesses have an on-page SEO strategy to help with organic search, but fewer are spending significant energy on off-page opportunities. Pulling some key levers for off-page SEO could be the competitive advantage your business needs to rise to the top of organic search results.

### Your presence on third-party review platforms can help you climb to the top of search 

When people search for reviews of your brand, what do they find? Business profile pages on Trustpilot tend to appear as a top search result, often with [Review Snippet stars](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-seo), and are backed by the credibility of a review platform built for people and businesses. 

But why do the Trustpilot profile pages tend to surface at the top of SERPs?

It all goes back to the concept of [domain authority](https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority). We don’t mean to brag, but Trustpilot’s domain authority is strong. In fact, as of 2019, Trustpilot is among the top 1% of most visited sites in the world and 0.35% of all Google searches include a Trustpilot business profile page — and for some additional context, there are about [63,000 Google searches](https://seotribunal.com/blog/google-stats-and-facts/) every second of every day.

The more reviews you get, and the more you enrich the content on your business profile page (think: company contact information, mission statement, social media profiles), the more content you provide for both search engines to associate your brand with ours, and show your profile page at the top of search results. 


Third Party Review Platforms Can Help You Climb to Top Of Search Results

### Google changes. Reviews are likely here to stay. 

According to [Moz](https://moz.com/learn/seo/off-site-seo), off-site SEO-related factors like third-party reviews carry more than 50% of the ranking factor weight. Though search engines are constantly evolving, factors like relevance, trustworthiness, and authority will likely always play a role in a page’s ability to rank, and building up your online presence with reviews can help businesses crush all three of those criteria.

At the end of the day, you want both your customers and Google to think of you as a brand. You can make all the on-page SEO optimizations you want, but Google will still be looking out for your brand’s reputation on [third-party platforms](https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/02/26/can-independent-review-platforms-make-google-love-site/).



## An ever-improving brand reputation

Most businesses spend a lot of time optimizing their websites for what they think Google wants to see, but __what your customers want to see is still incredibly important__. When a person searches for reviews of your company, they’re looking for a neutral third-party source of information.

Profiles on third-party review sites like Trustpilot tend to rank highly thanks to their strong domain authority, helping them stand out in organic search. They’re a great way to highlight your reputation to potential customers.



Brand reputation on third party platforms helps SEO

Choosing to build your online presence on a platform that’s likely to appear at the top of search is an advantage. But choosing a review platform known for [transparency and openness](https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/330528) is the fast track to a brand reputation that consumers can not only easily find, but also easily trust.

If you want to learn more, here are some other useful links that will help you get started improving your organic search performance with online reviews.

Trustpilot is a leading online review platform. Ready to start showing off your reputation in search results? Click the banner below to learn more about the many ways we can help.


May 2019 CTA Animated Gif: Let Your Business Shine with TP Stars

product reviews and photos trustpilot launch

Product reviews are a great way to include user-generated content from real customers. In this article, we’ve gathered the five biggest reasons you should be collecting reviews for each of your products. 

Product reviews are especially helpful when they include user-generated content from real customers, and that’s exactly why we’re happy to offer that capability with our [Product Reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews) feature. To help you make the most of it, we’ve gathered the five biggest reasons you should be collecting reviews for each of your products. 

intro stats

intro stats product reviews efficiency

## 1. Product reviews increase sales and average order value

With [89% of consumers checking reviews online before making purchases](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/4-things-every-business-owner-should-know-about-the-state-of-reviews), it’s undeniably important for businesses to collect and showcase reviews about their service. But for many businesses selling products, service-level reviews aren’t always enough. Providing consumers with reviews about your business is certainly helpful, but depending on the types of products you offer, a customer may need more information than is typically available in a service-level review. Do you offer a wide range of products? If so, a review from a customer who bought a hairdryer isn’t necessarily relevant to a potential customer shopping for shampoo. 

AnnSummers Product Reviews on page example

And if you sell something like clothing, where consumers can be particular about things like quality and fit, specific reviews for each product are crucial for sales because customers — even those who have purchased other items from you in the past —need to feel confident in the specific products they’re considering. By showcasing reviews for all of your products, you’re boosting consumer confidence, and credibility for your brand. 

Just how effective can product reviews be? British multinational retailer, Ann Summers, found that going from no reviews to even just a 1-star rating [increased their conversions by 76%](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/get-seen-in-search/ann-summers-uses-product-reviews-to-increase-sales-up-to-230). Product reviews with higher ratings saw even higher conversion rates. Overall their ecommerce store saw up to a 230% increase in conversions by leveraging product reviews throughout their customer journey.

Conversion increase

Conversion increase graph

In one of our other case studies danish toy store, Legeakademiet, saw a [4.43% revenue increase](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/training-education/how-product-reviews-increased-legeakademiet-revenue) from displaying product reviews on their website, which is more than a 200,000 EUR turnover increase for them. This was very impressive as only 20% of their products had any product reviews when they ran the split-test.

Quote image

Legeakademiet.dk Client Lead at S360

## 2. Product reviews provide fresh user-generated content

[User-generated content](https://blog.hootsuite.com/user-generated-content-ugc/) (UGC) is content that is created by consumers, rather than brands. In today’s world, where consumers are [inundated with brand messaging](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/learn-from-customers/trustworthiness-in-advertising-what-consumers-have-to-say) and more purchasing options than ever, UGC is particularly useful in building social proof (the concept of people following the actions of the masses), helping consumers feel FOMO around your products once they see that other consumers have enjoyed it. 

There are plenty of stats to speak to the power of UGC. Consumers are [2x more likely](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190220005302/en/Stackla-Survey-Reveals-Disconnect-Content-Consumers-Marketers) to say UGC is more authentic compared to branded content. On-site consumer reviews can [increase conversions by 74%](https://www.3dcart.com/ecommerce-university/why-your-eCommerce-store-needs-user-generated-content.html). And 92% of consumers [trust word of mouth more](https://blog.zoominfo.com/user-generated-content/) than any type of advertising. 

When it comes to product reviews, UGC can be particularly powerful when imagery or videos are included. With so much uncertainty around online shopping, consumers wonder whether a product will end up looking completely different than the promotional product shots they saw at checkout. When customers upload photos along with their product reviews, it gives new shoppers the confidence to purchase that same product and know they’ll receive what they’re expecting. Depending on the product, video can be even more helpful here to showcase the different elements of a product. 

Trustpilot’s [Product Reviews photo feature](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/product-reviews) makes it super easy to collect and display  user-generated photos with your product reviews as it’s seamlessly embedded.

product reviews photo feature full release

User-generated photos of your products can also be used to create ads for social media as shown above. As Simona highlights below, these can be effective to build that all important transparency between your products and your customers.

Digital Marketing Manager at houseofbaukjen.com

houseofbaukjen.com customer example

Consumers love to engage with short videos, and that’s not just limited to TikTok. 84% of people say they’ve [been convinced to buy a product or service](https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/ "Video Marketing Statistics 2021") by watching a brand’s video and 69% of people said that to learn about a product or service they’d [prefer to watch a short video](https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/ "Video Marketing Statistics 2021"). 

Our Video for Product Reviews feature gives your customers a more interactive way to leave you reviews. It can also give you really valuable insights into how your products look when they finally make it to your customers. But the best part of videos with reviews is that it can help you tap into younger markets and give you fresh video content to leverage in throughout your customer journey and marketing channels. 


Product reviews with video

Imagine if instead of generic and produced videos on your site, you could easily integrate videos of your customers talking about how much they liked their purchase right onto your site. These kinds of videos will come across as a lot more authentic and genuine – they’re a lot more cost-effective as well.

## 3. Product reviews improve your SEO 

SEO is particularly challenging for ecommerce sites. With so many different product pages (and constant churn as new products are added or taken away), it can be much harder to optimize for ecommerce than service-based sites. 

Product reviews primarily help your site’s SEO by giving you continuously fresh content, [which Google loves](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/why-does-google-care-if-your-business-has-online-reviews-in-2019). Some product reviews can be quite detailed, which can help expand a given product’s query reach and [ultimately rank for longer tail keywords](https://moz.com/blog/long-tail-seo-target-low-volume-keywords-whiteboard-friday). 

product reviews example

SEO is also impacted by the length of time people spend on your site. About [70% of consumers](https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-errors-ecommerce-websites/) are looking for reviews on products when they enter an ecommerce site. If your site doesn’t have any, a large percent of visitors searching will quickly leave your site. This can affect site metrics like bounce rate and time on site, [both of which can negatively impact your SEO](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-search-rankings-traffic-drop/264617/#close). This also means you’re missing out on a large chunk of potential customers. 

Last but not least, depending on how you leverage them, product reviews can also help get your star rating to display in search results through [review snippets](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/browsers-to-buyers/how-to-boost-your-seo-with-trustpilots-seo-product-review-trustbox). These little gold stars help your page stand out on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) so much so that  some Trustpilot customers have been able to [increase click-through rates by up to 35%](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/203925668-SEO-Benefits-of-Product-Reviews).

rich snippets and product reviews example

review snippets and product reviews example

Fresh content and review snippets only need to be set up once when you implement your product review solution. This is a great way to automate some of your SEO efforts for your product pages, saving you both time and money.

## 4. Increase CTR on Google Shopping and add photos to your product reviews

Did you know that product reviews can also help you get stars on Google Shopping, as well as increase your [CTR up to 15%](http://content.trustpilot.com/pdf/Google_Product_Ratings_PLA_Case_Studies.pdf)?

These are displayed both on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), and in Google Shopping.


superdry google shopping product reviews example

In 2019, Google found that [50% of digital shoppers](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9522897?hl=en) admitted that images help them decide what to buy online. To help shoppers feel more confident in their online purchases, Google [introduced user-generated images in product reviews on Google Shopping](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9522897?hl=en).

Customer photos attached to product reviews on Google Shopping

By collecting product reviews with Trustpilot Product Reviews, your product review photos will automatically be fed to Google so they can appear on your Shopping Ads if they qualify. It’s currently only available in the US, and on mobile devices, but Google has plans to expand [across more Google properties and countries](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9522897?hl=en).

## 5. Optimized inventory management and product selection

Collecting product reviews can give your business valuable [consumer insights](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/learn-from-customers/what-are-consumer-insights-and-how-do-i-use-them). Understanding which products your customers really love can help you keep up with demand and stock  products with similar attributes down the line. 

These same insights allow you to identify and remove poorly rated products from your site, lowering the risk that one of your happy customers will become dissatisfied with a future purchase. This, in turn, can drastically improve your customer lifetime value. 

And don’t forget about products with mediocre ratings! If you have products that consistently get 3 star ratings, digging into the content of those reviews can help you tweak the product, improve it for future customers, and hopefully turn it into a 5 star product.  

This is another thing [Legeakademit does with their product reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/training-education/how-product-reviews-increased-legeakademiet-revenue). Ann Reimer, Founder & Partner shared that: “Through product reviews, customers tell us which products to get more of and which to remove. [Product reviews] help us pick the right products just as much as they help our customers.” In today’s online marketplace this is the kind of mindset all companies should have. Reviews aren’t just a way to help consumers, they also help businesses to know exactly how to satisfy their customers. 

### Boost your sales with Product Reviews today

If you’re selling something online, product reviews can bring your business great benefits in terms of conversion, SEO, and product development. Collecting and leveraging product reviews doesn’t take a long time either, so if you’re ready to start seeing these benefits today, click the link below.

Download our complete guide to reviews

Complete Guide to Reviews CTA Banner new link

product reviews and photos

5 Ways product reviews can accelerate your business

seo and visibility + reviews

5 Reasons why it's essential to build a great reputation as a business when it comes to search engine optimisation, especially in uncertain times.

Yes, SEO can often be complicated and technical, especially in times like these. A website can be optimised to have all the SEO bells and whistles, but if its brand reputation is subpar, that could have an impact on performance. In this article, we’ll be discussing the importance of a good reputation when it comes to search engine optimisation, especially in uncertain times.

### Word of mouth is one of the best forms of marketing

Before the age of the internet and eCommerce, businesses relied on traditional forms of marketing to grow their business. One of the best forms of marketing out there is word of mouth. Providing a great experience and service for one person means they’re more likely to become not just a repeat customer, but also a brand advocate. They help spread the word of the great service they just received, which then results in better brand reputation.

However, this form of marketing can only work if you conduct good business. Good business in this context means ensuring customer experience and satisfaction is your highest priority. In the eCommerce world, this would mean fast delivery turnarounds, seamless returns policy, great customer service, and also great prices. If you get those things right, the abundance of digital mechanisms available can help streamline the rest. Which leads us to the next section.


### The importance of reputation & reviews

Humans are naturally curious, and they are particularly curious if they have not heard of your brand before. If you have a great product on offer at a great price, let’s say 10% cheaper than the competition, but you’re a start-up brand, users are more likely to start asking questions, such as:

- Who are these guys?
- Why are they offering this product at a cheaper price?
- Are these guys legit, is this a scam?
- Am I going to get ripped off?

Which is why it is so important to ensure that you have a well-designed website, and more importantly ensure that your trust signals are obvious: SSL certificate (HTTPs), secure checkout, payment options, privacy policy, shipping policy, returns policy, and reviews and testimonials. Browsing websites is second nature to most users, and today’s shoppers are subconsciously looking for these cues to determine legitimacy and authenticity of a website. These trust signals also contribute to Google’s evaluation of E-A-T of a website as part of their algorithms, which we will cover in later sections of this article.


Google searches

Start typing in any brand name in Google and do not hit “enter”, you will get a list of suggested queries in a drop-down. These suggestions are referred to as Google Auto-suggest, and it is a common occurrence to see “brand + reviews” as a suggestion. Queries appear on this list because they are popular. Which is why it is important to ensure that you have positive reviews floating out there on the Internet, especially during times of uncertainty.

Google Search Engine Results Page

If users aren’t familiar with your brand or website, they are going to search for your “brand + review” in Google in order to conduct their own research. It is said that [88%](https://searchengineland.com/88-consumers-trust-online-reviews-much-personal-recommendations-195803) of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and it is no surprise that reviews provide efficient social proof. 

### How customer reviews impact SEO

If implemented and executed accurately, user generated product reviews provide social proof that the product is legitimate and the number of reviews indicates that there has been numerous sales of the product. More importantly, the textual nature of user reviews provides keyword research content depth to product pages. If a user is going to be writing a product review, they are naturally going to mention the product name (primary keyword) and the features of the product (secondary keyword), contributing to juicy on-site relevancy signals which Google looks at when ranking websites.

It is well and good that some websites encourage their customers to leave native reviews through their eCommerce platform, but let’s face it, third-party validation from verified review websites plays a very important role when it comes to a website’s reputation, especially when you are a new brand or startup. 

That’s why it is so important that you get your business process right by collecting reviews through review platforms, and ensure a positive customer experience and affect positive change internally.

### Reputation and E-A-T

In September 2017, CNBC published an article interviewing Ben Gomes (VP of Search Engineering at Google) on how search works. In that article, he reveals that Google employs thousands of search quality raters to help evaluate the quality of search results when they are considering a tweak to their search algorithms. These search quality raters evaluate SERPs based on a document called the Quality Rater’s Guidelines which is a publicly accessible document.

To quote the article:

“Google contracts about 10,000 of these raters around the world, and while they cannot directly affect search results, their opinions help Google’s search team evaluate whether a given tweak should go through or not. Raters typically see old and new results side by side, and determine which are better.”

In the quality rater’s guidelines, there is a strong emphasis on E-A-T which stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. I want to bring your attention to section 4.0 and 5.0 of the document which highlights what they deem to be High Quality Pages and have a high level of E-A-T. Below are some snippets from the document:


high quality pages

Back to those on-site trust signals that were mentioned in earlier sections of this article... It is important to ensure that these trust signals are obvious and clearly outlined on your website.

reputation and google

They also make mention of the importance of reputation throughout the document, even providing instructions on how to determine the reputation of a website in question:

searching for business reputation

These are all hints that your overall business reputation plays a huge role in your E-A-T. In the CNBC article, it was said that their evaluations from the search quality raters guidelines have no direct impact on Google’s algorithms. Fast forward to February 2019, Google published a [whitepaper](https://www.blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/fighting-disinformation-across-our-products/) outlining their attempt in fighting disinformation in SERPs. To quote the whitepaper:

“*Our ranking system does not identify the intent or factual accuracy of any given piece of content. However, it is specifically designed to identify sites with high indicia of expertise, authority and trustworthiness.*”

This is a pretty clear indication that E-A-T is important, and that Google’s algorithm considers it when ranking websites.

### Focus on doing good business, even if difficult times

If you actually spend some time reading the Search Quality Rater’s Guidelines without an SEO lens, it is all about ensuring that your business has a good reputation. Having a good reputation is a byproduct of doing good business and doing good business is all about ensuring your customers are happy and satisfied. Word of mouth marketing is a really powerful tool which is free, and the effect of it compounds over time.

You can invest in SEO tools, hire the best SEO agency and spend millions in PR and digital advertising. but if your underlying reputation is bad - no amount of investment is going to fix that. Look internally and affect change, and the rest will follow.



Jason Mun is the Search Director for [Overdose](https://www.overdose.digital/) Digital. With over a decade of search experience, he leads the charge on all things SEO for both the Melbourne and wider global offices.

How to manage your SEO in difficult times

brand affinity for organic search

If your business would benefit from more traction in organic search, you should consider focusing on brand affinity marketing. Here’s why it affects SEO. 

Let’s take off our marketing hats for a moment and remember that at the end of the day, we’re consumers, we’re internet users, and first and foremost — we’re all human. That’s exactly why we tend to gravitate towards businesses that feel less like a provider of a good or service, and more like a brand we can connect with [emotionally and ethically](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/the-rise-of-belief-driven-buying-3-ways-to-protect-your-online-reputation).

But it’s not only up to brands to communicate their values and trustworthiness to potential customers. In our logged-on world, we look for recommendations from friends, family, and even strangers on the internet, to determine what we purchase. It’s plain to see that building a reputable brand that consumers actively promote creates a feedback loop that tends to pay off on organic channels — and especially organic search. 

If your business would benefit from more traction in organic search, you should consider focusing on brand affinity marketing. Here’s why it affects SEO. 

## Brand affinity 101: how it works

[Brand affinity](https://www.thebalancesmb.com/boost-brand-affinity-2296927) is a concept (and sometimes a metric) used by marketers to help predict how consumers will behave when faced with a purchasing decision. In short, it describes a segment of consumers who believe a certain brand aligns with their values. When consumers feel this way about a brand, it tends to build a lasting relationship and keep them coming back for the long haul. 

But how is this different from brand awareness? Simply put, brand affinity stems from [customer advocacy](https://business.trustpilot.com/reviews/build-trusted-brand/your-guide-to-customer-advocacy-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-important), whereas awareness stems from brand exposure from activities like paid social campaigns — which too many businesses don’t realize, when done in excess, can actually [harm customer sentiments](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/can-online-reviews-revive-consumer-trust-in-advertising) about their brand. 

According to brand affinity experts at [Wistia](https://wistia.com/about/brand-affinity-marketing), almost all brand building activities today hinge on increasing awareness, under the false pretense that awareness leads to brand affinity. The reality is that quality over quantity is key for boosting brand affinity. No matter how many times a consumer has interacted with your brand, they’re unlikely to feel much brand affinity unless those interactions contain some emotional depth.

So what does it look like when your audience has a strong sense of brand affinity for your company? 

Though it can take many forms, brand affinity can be quantified with some help from [social proof](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/why-and-how-social-proof-influences-consumers) like social media mentions or [customer reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/service-reviews). 

## The role of brand affinity in organic search

Ten years ago, Google’s search results for transactional queries were [pretty easy to game](https://searchengineland.com/new-york-times-exposes-j-c-penney-link-scheme-that-causes-plummeting-rankings-in-google-64529). That’s why for the better part of the last decade, Google has been on the lookout for certain ranking factors (like [brand signals](https://moz.com/blog/the-next-generation-of-ranking-signals)) to help them determine how high pages should rank in the SERPs. 

In many ways, search engines are a giant feedback loop — Google’s M.O. is to serve up the highest quality, most reputable results so happy searchers will come back to them to answer future queries. To help them find the best results out there, Google’s algorithm considers certain signals that help them differentiate the “brands” (read: who have online evidence of their brand affinity) from the “generics” (the sites that Google suspects offer a poor customer experience). 




Yes, Google looks at a ton of inputs to determine the quality of a search result, but it’s safe to say that the powers that be appreciate it when some of the guesswork around a brand’s quality is done on their behalf. 

So, capturing and displaying your brand affinity online, right where Google can see it, is a great way to climb up the ranks in organic search. 

## How to show off your brand affinity to search engines 

While the online landscape is constantly changing with new channels for brand engagement being introduced all the time, there are some pretty timeless methods you can use to make sure your company’s brand affinity is visible in the eyes of Google. Here are three of the best ways to show your off your brand affinity to search engines.

### 1. Target informational queries with top funnel content marketing

While many marketing activities are laser-focused on conversions, [top funnel content marketing](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/04/funnels-content-marketing/) is a great opportunity to introduce yourself and provide value to your target audience without asking anything in return. Sometimes that means broaching a content topic that your marketing personas are sure to care about, even if the topic is only tangentially related to your product or service. 

If you want to boost brand affinity through content marketing, consider targeting top funnel informational queries in addition to the exact commercial keywords you’re going after. Winning readers’ attention in these early moments of their customer journey can actually bias future commercial searches towards your brand.

This kind of bias, along with the feedback loops at play, work together to reinforce the power of brand affinity in organic search. [Search Engine Journal](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-guide/brand-building-strategy/#close) says it best: 

“You may have never heard of Brand X, but if enough other people have heard of Brand X, then it will have a higher average CTR — and a more prominent position on the SERP. That feedback loop always existed in Google Ads because of Quality Score. Big brands have had huge advantages thanks to brand affinity. People tended to click on ads from brands they knew.
Now the same thing is happening in organic search. There’s a kind of feedback loop where brands you see in search now more closely correlate to the overall popularity of that brand.”

So, aspiring big brands take note: even if readers don’t convert the first time they interact with your site, providing real value without asking for anything in return increases the likelihood that people will remember your business, return to you when they’re ready to convert, and you guessed it — it’ll ignite their brand affinity towards your company. 

### 2. Start collecting reviews to spotlight brand affinity and boost your off-page SEO

For obvious reasons, collecting and displaying customer feedback in the form of online reviews is one of the most straightforward ways to put a spotlight on all of the affinity felt towards your brand. What’s less obvious is that brand-building tactic can also move the needle in organic search because of its role in off-page SEO.

Off-page SEO sums up all the actions you take outside of your actual website that help you come across as authoritative, relevant, and trustworthy in the eyes of Google. Here’s a look at how it works:


This is equally important whether you’re an online or local business: According to [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/blog/off-page-seo/#why-is-off-page-seo-important), off-page “review signals” are the third most important factor for ranking in Google’s “snack pack” results, and the fifth most important ranking factor in local organic search.  

Not only that, but collecting reviews signals to Google — and your future customers — that you’re a brand that can be trusted, and third-party review platforms can strengthen that trustworthy association even further.

Think about it this way: When people search for reviews of your brand, what do they find? If you collect reviews through a third-party platform with strong domain authority like [Trustpilot](https://business.trustpilot.com/why-trustpilot), they’re highly likely to find your profile page complete with [review snippets](https://business.trustpilot.com/features/review-seo) at the top of the SERPs.

### 3. Grow a social media community around your brand

We’ve established above that brand affinity can lead to higher CTR in the SERPs, so it makes sense to build an authentic and reputable brand anywhere your future customers might be. 

Chances are they’re on social media. 

Growing a community around your brand on social boosts brand affinity outside of organic search, but its effects can certainly carry over to organic search thanks to the power of off-page SEO. When a company takes steps to monitor and listen to their online communities, and even interact directly with customers, it creates a better relationship with not only that specific customer, but all of the onlookers online. 

For this reason, it’s important to put effort into your [social media presence](https://www.thebalancesmb.com/boost-brand-affinity-2296927) to create the kind of brand affinity that carries over to organic search. Here are some tactics to get started:

- Monitor and respond to what followers are saying about your products or services
- Reply thoughtfully to as many comments as you can
- Show off your customer service prowess in the comments 
- Use your social channels to offer valuable (and shareable) content without asking anything in return from your followers

Taking measures to establish a strong connection with your followers only increases the [trustworthiness of your brand](https://business.trustpilot.com/guides-reports/build-trusted-brand/6-ways-to-make-trust-your-essential-brand-differentiator) — and the odds that your followers will spread the word about your business. 

## Embracing the long game of brand affinity for organic search

Too often businesses funnel their time and marketing budgets into optimizing for the platform delivering their branded messages instead of the people consuming the brand. At the end of the day, you can optimize your website as much as you want for what Google wants to see, but what your customers want to see is still paramount for success in organic search and beyond. 

To master brand affinity is to master the long game — an approach that can feel foreign in our world of instant gratification and real time performance metrics. As you can see, brand affinity tends to be a byproduct of creating better customer experiences, which doesn’t usually happen overnight. 

Whether giving your customers what they want means delivering valuable content for free, rolling out real time customer service on social, or varying your product offering in light of customer feedback — if you zero in on what that means for your business, organic traffic-boosting brand affinity is sure to follow.

### Ready to jumpstart your brand affinity marketing?

The first step is building up a trustworthy brand reputation. Don't miss your free copy of "6 Ways to Make Trust Your Essential Brand Differentiator" below. 

How to use brand affinity to unlock organic search opportunities

Google Rich Snippets Update September 2019

Google Review Snippets Update September 2019

As of September 2019, online service, company, and local reviews are no longer eligible for review snippet stars in organic search. However, your pages with product reviews are still eligible for rich snippet stars, and so are Trusptilot profile pages.

## First off, what are Review Snippets?

Review Snippets are a line of additional information on a search result that can include stars and ratings (which we’ll discuss in this article). They’re usually leveraged by businesses to make certain results stand out in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). 

If you'd like to find out more, watch this [quick video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-kX0Aut-18) from Google. 


Example of Rich Snippet stars in organic search results

Example of Review Snippet stars

## So, what has changed exactly and why does this concern me?

In short, self-serving reviews are no longer eligible for review snippets. Reviews that can be perceived as “self-serving” aren't in the best interest of users. 

What Google calls “self-serving” reviews is when a review about entity A is placed on the website of entity A - either directly in their markup or via an embedded third-party widget. 

With this change, Google will not be displaying review-rich results anymore for the LocalBusiness and Organization (and their subtypes) schema types, in cases where the entity being reviewed controls the reviews themselves - regardless of whether the reviews are collected by a third-party platform like Trustpilot.

In the example below, the first three search results demonstrate Review Snippet stars for the term ‘Surewise reviews’.

After the update, the Surewise.com’s search results will no longer have Review Snippet stars, but you’ll notice that Surewise’s Trustpilot Profile Page has retained its stars: 


review snippet before after example

### What does this mean for your business? 

- This means you'll no longer see Review Snippets in organic search results from service, company, or local reviews coming from your own website.
- However, any product pages using product reviews are still eligible for Review Snippet stars.
- You will still see Review Snippets in search results for your business profile page on Trustpilot.

The change is in effect as of __September 16th, 2019__.

## Can I get my Review Snippet stars back?

Unfortunately, there is no way to gain back Richey with Google’s new [Review Snippet guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet#technical-guidelines) and regardless of which review source you reference.

However, you can still get review snippet stars with Product Reviews for your product pages.

## Has my Trustpilot company profile page lost its Review Snippet stars too?

Not at all. As you can see in the examples above and below, these are not impacted by this change and are among the few types of pages that comply with the Google's new [Review Snippet guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/review-snippet#technical-guidelines).


Trustpilot profile pages still have review snippet stars

As a leading online review platform, free and open to all, Trustpilot continues to be a third-party source of credible, authentic, trusted review content.

## Does this affect Product Reviews too?

No, this change only affects organization and local review markup and does not include the product markup. Here is an example:


Trustpilot product reviews still get review snippets

### So, what are my best next steps?

1. Gain Review Snippet stars for all your product pages by collecting and displaying product reviews.
2. Ensure you’re collecting reviews on a third-party platform like Trustpilot that can help enhance your reputation in organic search results with a profile page.
3. On branded Google searches, give your business profile page as much visibility as possible. You can do that by [enriching your Trustpilot page](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/202616716-Customize-your-company-profile) with consumer-rich friendly content and contact details for support such as your email address or phone number. Finally, we recommend [linking to your profile page from your website by adding a TrustBox widget](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/203840826-Add-a-TrustBox-widget-to-a-webpage) for example. You can also link to it from your social media accounts and posts.
4. Ensure you [qualify for Google Seller Ratings](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/articles/202607413-Google-Seller-Ratings-Get-seller-rating-stars-for-your-AdWords-campaigns) to help build your reputation in your Google text and Shopping Ads.

As a result of this change, we are updating all of our articles, materials, and web pages — in all languages — over the next few weeks. Please bear with us as we manage to get through it all. 

We hope this was helpful to you and reach out to us if you have any questions in regards to Trustpilot.

The Trustpilot Team 

Google Review Snippet update: What it means for businesses

Google Seller Ratings new feature 2018

Google Seller Ratings example

Google seller ratings are an automatic extension that is displayed globally to customers to help them find businesses that offer quality services. 

__*Up until now*__, the current score that was generated for a domain was comprised of data from global sources into a single score. The extension appeared automatically if a business had 150 unique reviews, and a 3.5/5 rating or above. But this has now changed.

### So, what can I expect?

Two things.

First of all, Google will begin displaying Seller Ratings on a per-country basis to better reflect your customers’ experience in a specific country. 

Second of all, Google has lowered the Seller Ratings threshold of reviews required to 100 per country,  instead of 150 global reviews. The reviews from users in a particular country will only contribute to the company’s rating in that country.

### When did Google update Seller Ratings?

This is now live in English speaking markets and more countries are coming soon according to Google.

### How do I know if I have Seller Ratings in each country now?

- Go to the following URL: https://www.google.com/shopping/ratings/account/metrics?q=example.com&v=2&c=xx
- Replace "example.com" with your domain (without "www.")
- Replace “__xx__” with a country code (us, dk, fr, en, de, gb, se etc.)

### How do I know if I’ll be able to keep my Seller Ratings?

Firstly, you will need to maintain a high standard of service, so that __your average review score is above 3.5/5__. 

Next, you’ll need to be collecting enough reviews. You will need to have __at least 100 reviews in the last 12 months in a given country__, for your business to be eligible for GSR in that country. This means that you need to send invitations to your customers to invite them to review your services. 

If your conversion rate for review invitations is around 10% or more, you need to be sending minimum 1,000 invitations per year, per country to collect more than 100 reviews.

If you’re sending more than 2,000 invitations per country every 12 months, you should be safe (assuming your response is above 5% and your score is above 3.5/5).

If you’re sending less than 2,000 invitations and/or have a response rate of less than 5%, you will need to take action.

### How will that affect companies depending on their number of reviews?

As a Google Review Partner, and as review platform with more than 50,000,000 reviews on almost 250,000 domains worldwide, we’ve looked into our data to help estimate the effect of these changes, assuming that customers are only using Trustpilot reviews.

We have looked at all domains who have collected verified reviews in the last 12 months using Trutspilot's invitations service and have estimated the effect of changes in GSR rules to these. 

We’ve excluded domains with below 100 verified reviews, as these don’t qualify.




the effect of google seller rating changes 2018 Trustpilot

As seen above, this is great news for companies with 100 to 149 invited reviews per year range, giving them the opportunity to gain GSRs when it was previously out of reach. Indeed, about 73% of them should qualify for GSR in at least 1 country where they didn’t before. Every domain that qualified under the old rules should be able to qualify in at least one market now.

When looking at companies with 150 to 249 reviews, we estimate that around 94% will keep their qualification in at least one country, and only around 5% will lose it completely. 

### Is this change a good or a bad thing?

Please note, GSRs can be obtained by collecting feedback from multiple sources, so we can only speak about reviews that have been left on Trustpilot. 

However, according to our data, we believe the following is an educated and directional guess on how these changes will affect most companies.

We estimate that 7 times more domains are likely to gain GSRs in at least 1 market than lose GSRs in all markets. However, that is looking at GSRs as a binary Yes/No question. The changes will make it much more complex to navigate for companies.

Here’s our research:


Trustpilot research and findings Google seller ratings 2018

Our data suggests that many companies may lose GSRs in multiple markets. 

Example3.com above has 10 countries with just 1-10 reviews and will therefore lose GSRs in these countries. However, countries with only one review/country suggest that reviews aren’t really important in these markets, therefore, losing GSRs shouldn’t be a problem to them.

### I’ve lost my Seller Ratings, how do I get the extension again?

As mentioned in the previous section, you need __100 unique reviews per country within a 12 month period, and a rating of 3.5/5 stars or better__. 

Reach out to your Trustpilot customer success manager to see if there’s anything you can do to increase your number of reviews.

### How can you help me collect more reviews?

If you’re not collecting enough reviews and not sending enough invites a year, you’ve come to the right place! 
Indeed, at Trustpilot, we like making life easier for you and your customers! That’s why we’ve developed invitation templates with dynamic content that let you personalise and customise your emails. 

Our platform includes a wide range of invitation methods that support every type of business and helps you get as many reviews as possible, thanks to our automated system. Indeed, every time someone purchases something from you, Trustpilot sends an email invite on your behalf, allowing you to build up your number of reviews, and therefore qualify for Seller Ratings.

Trustpilot’s optimised review invitation templates and Reminders have an average response rate of 11%. If you use both, you should only need to send 1,000 invitations yearly to potentially qualify for Seller Ratings as you should be collecting +100 reviews for that country.


trustpilot invite

Please bear in mind that collecting 100 reviews for a specific country doesn’t guarantee you will acquire Seller Ratings. This is up to Google.

If you think your customers might miss your first email, worry no more! We’ve got you covered with our invitation Reminder template. A Reminder is sent to customers who didn’t write a review (you can set the delay). These can increase your conversion rate by up to 35%.

If you’d like to hear more about how Trustpilot can help you collect more than 100 reviews, [check out our support centre](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/en-us/), or [request a demo today](https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/get-started/request-demo)!

If you have more questions about the new Google Seller Ratings feature, please get in touch with the Google Ads team.


Google’s new Seller Ratings threshold lowered to 100

boost google seller ratings with reviews

Google Seller Ratings have the potential to boost your click-through rate up to 10%, so it's a great idea to start collecting customer reviews to qualify for them. Here are some ways you can build up tons of positive reviews and boost your star rating.

Today customer feedback is [more prevalent and important than ever before](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/five-ways-retail-has-changed-and-how-businesses-can-adapt.html). Nowhere is this more apparent than when your target customer searches for product and brand information online, and lands immediately on [Google Seller Ratings (GSRs)](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375474?hl=en).

## Why you should care about Google ratings

In a 2015 study from SEO tool provider BrightLocal, [92% of customers read online reviews](https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey/). This statistic is reflected by the growing [importance of Google Seller Ratings](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/articles/202216898-Google-and-Trustpilot-FAQ).

The popularity of companies in every sector, from eCommerce to retail, education to travel, healthcare to finance, is encapsulated in the GSR stars that appear under their Google Ads displays.

If all goes well, Google Seller Ratings have the potential to:

- Increase click-through rates (CTRs) by an [average of 10 percent](http://adwords.blogspot.dk/2011/04/5-simple-ways-to-improve-your-adwords.html).
- Add credibility to your ads with the colourful star rating.

## In brief, here’s how Google Seller Ratings work

You give your customers a Google-approved platform for sharing reviews of your company.

Once you get 100 reviews from 100 different customers within a 12-month period (per country), you're eligible for GSRs – as long as your reviews have a rating of 3.5 stars or higher.

It takes a few weeks for Google to catch up after your customers help you reach that initial 100-review threshold.

Once it does, you’ll start to see that customer feedback in your seller reviews on your Google text ads.

## How to get reviews

Whether there was a positive or negative experience, customers want to let others know what about it. Sharing opinions is a part of human nature.

But don't let that scare you. You're actually sitting on a golden opportunity to get reviews that can improve your business, increase your sales, and build brand loyalty.

It is not difficult to get reviews from customers. Here’s how:

### 1. Treat your customers well
Give them an excellent product; give them your ear when they’re unhappy and fix their problems. Keep in touch with customers.

### 2. Simplify the reviews process
Make the reviews process as easy for them as yelling over the fence to a friend next door. That means:

- [__Automate the business reviews process:__](https://business.trustpilot.com/solutions?utm_medium=how-to-land-great-reviews-and-boost-your-google-seller-ratings&utm_source=Automate+the+business+reviews+process:&utm_campaign=blog_en&sfdc=701b0000000JsWM) Link your eCommerce platform to your review solution to automatically send review requests to your customers every time they make a purchase. You can then focus on putting that feedback to work - improving customer satisfaction levels and retention rates.
- [__Kickstart your efforts__](https://support.trustpilot.com/hc/articles/201765266-Invite-Your-Customers): Invite customers to write reviews with a big push from the start.
- __Optimize your review invitation emails__: More than 70 percent of the emails that land in your prospects’ inboxes are likely spam. Don’t write a review invitation that will get lumped into that category.

Write a clear subject line, keep the message personal, include a prominent call to action and craft concise, focused copy.

__*Read how Ohio-based lender [Check ‘n Go got more than 500 customer reviews](https://business.trustpilot.com/customer-stories/finance-insurance/how-check-n-go-improved-their-online-reputation), leading to a 12.1 percent lift in landing page conversions.*__

## Life beyond 100: why high-volume customer reviews matter

Google sets 100 reviews per country as the minimum for applying GSR to your brand’s Google Ads campaigns.

Once you hit 100 reviews, celebrate – and then move forward. There are so many benefits to moving beyond that number.

### Authority online comes from volume

Let’s consider your customers. They rely on Google ratings to help them make smart purchasing decisions.

You need a GSR of 3.5 stars just to get on the board, and the highest you can go is 5 stars. That means there are subtle shades between the worst-ranked brands and the best.

Do your customers necessarily choose to do business with you because you have 4.5 stars rather than 4? Do they also consider how many reviews are reflected in your GSR versus your competitors’?

If you have 320 reviews and your competitor has 32, which overall GSR is more impressive to your customer? Clickthroughs are likely to be increased by the [wisdom of a larger crowd](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150331175904.htm), even if that larger crowd includes a few negative reviews.

### Today's prospects want to know you care

If you collected 32 positve reviews in January, but now it’s August, you can bet that your prospects will notice. First, they’ll decide to dig deeper into your star ratings to see what your customers had to say about your brand.

Second, they’ll look at the dates of those reviews – and they’ll wonder:

  *“Why hasn’t anyone reviewed this brand in almost a year? Are all the good things this company was doing eight months ago still relevant? Am I going to have a different experience than these reviewers had? I wonder whether any of these other companies over here have more recent reviews…”*

With business reviews [gaining more power than ever before](http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/236891), keeping feedback fresh is key.

### The voice of your customer helps you compete

The Web has long made it easier for smaller companies to do bigger business than they could have in the days when brick-and-mortar overhead was unavoidable.

GSRs fueled by a consistently high volume of reviews gives niche businesses even more of a competitive advantage, no matter the size of your business or market share.

## What to do after landing stellar reviews

Beyond the on Google rating benefits, sustained customer review strategies increase website conversion rate and encourage customer brand loyalty.

Trustpilot statistics show that [77 percent of customers check online reviews](https://econsultancy.com/blog/64406-77-of-uk-shoppers-consult-reviews-before-buying-online-report/) before making an online purchase. We've seen brands boost their revenue by up to 40 percent through our customer review programs.

And beyond enhanced online reputations, a large volume of customer reviews provide a larger volume of data that can be analyzed to find ways to improve overall business operations, such as product development, sales and so on.

And all that leads to customer churn reduction, an increase in on site conversions, and the possibility to maximize your website ranking.

## The final word...

You can’t underestimate the marketing value of getting found on the world’s largest search engine.

A boost in GSR has an immediate impact on a business, and that impact is magnified when brands sustain their feedback programs long after they hit the 100-review starting line set by Google.

**Updated to represent [Google's](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375474?hl=en) latest changes*

Find out more about Trustpilot and Google Seller Ratings, request a free demo below.

How to land great reviews and boost your Google Seller Rating

Image featuring Trustpilot and Ssense employees

__Trustpilot:__ How long have you been an SEO specialist and across what industries?

__Arnaud Mangasaryan:__ I decided to start doing SEO because of the simple question: “why should we create the most beautiful, fast, and easy-to-use website if nobody can find it?”

Back in 2005, SEO was still a mysterious job, not really known in the web industry. I started to work in an agency and then I decided to move myself in-house. I prefer long-term SEO strategy and participate in the product evolution instead of working by contract. During my career, I worked for classifieds, real estate, and online newspaper companies based in France, UK, Germany, and Canada.

In 2011, I created the only SEO Association named DoYouSEO, based in Montreal. It’s goal is to promote the expertise and encourage group learning via SEO camps that are focused around specific topics decided by attendees. Two speakers share case studies around the chosen topic to let DoYouSEO members learn by example.

I have also been an SEO teacher at different universities in Paris and Montreal for 4 years. Sharing knowledge and experience is the best way to promote an expertise and working in SEO for an international eCommerce site like SSENSE is really exciting!

__TP:__ What is your general approach in SEO - whether on technical SEO, overall SEO strategy, content and SEO, and other subsets of SEO?

__AM:__ SEO is an expertise driven by Marketing & Performance. The main goal of SEO is to offer a great experience to potential customers that land on your site via organic search.

With that goal in mind, you can choose how you would like to approach the job. There is no unique answer for this but here’s my approach.

Globally, there are 3 main pillars around SEO:

__Technical & structure:__ The primary part of SEO. Having a website structure that is easy for search engines to crawl and users to navigate is essential. Then, you need to prioritize what to index according to business goals and user intention.

There are many subjects that need to be targeted from a SEO perspective when talking about the ‘technical & structure’ aspect: responsiveness/adaptiveness, server rules, page speed, meta rules & integration, front end code, javascript use, http status code usage, structured data, security, transaction process, error pages, redirect rules, etc…

An SEO expert needs to perfectly understand HTML, Javascript, and even algorithmic functions. Doing SEO without having knowledge in IT means that you are a marketing expert, not a SEO expert. I know some people will disagree with this but when you need to analyze Google behaviour, changes, tests, rethink & improve your site structure, technical proficiency is necessary.

__User intention:__ Knowing how to structure your site, your pages, and your content for search engines is great but don’t forget that visitors generate traffic and revenue on your site, not search engines. That’s why it’s fundamental to know the profile of your customers. Generally, I like to have a long meeting with PR or Branding in order to learn more about who we target, who they are, and how they live their day-to-day life.

Skipping this step means you don’t want to adapt your strategy for your customers and you just want to do basic keyword research. Whatever you provide/sell on your site is associated to one or multiple topics. You need to understand how your customers are searching for these topics, around these topics, and understand what they expect to see. This is where the fun starts.

When you perform your keyword research, you need to anticipate what kind of emotion your customer is filled with as soon as they perform a search. This may affect the kind of result they are expecting to see.

User intention analysis is long, tough, but useful. Ideally, you perform keyword research, adapt it for your customers, your website, and for each country you are targeting if you have an international presence.

__Off-site acquisition:__ The number (and quality) of backlinks is one of Google’s primary criteria to evaluate the popularity of a domain. Developing your popularity is crucial for SEO because this will impact mid/long-term incoming traffic from organic search, branded, or non-branded. Having these external signals matter to search engines. The context of each link is important and in 2017, you don’t want to linkfarm, unless you don’t care about the visibility of your site on Google (don’t forget, a sneaky penguin is watching you).

This third pillar of SEO requires creativity and solid communication skills if you want to diversify your approach and find new potential customers within several industry fields related to the culture of your company. And don’t forget: diversity - regarding business goals - is the key, much more than the number of backlinks.

__TP:__ What has been the most recent Google algorithm change or update that has made a significant SEO impact for you?

__AM:__ The 3 Google changes that may affect our organic visibility on mid-term traffic, are:

- The severity of Google penalties for Schema.org validation (you can have small manual penalties for unexpected details).
- Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) which affects the order of organic results. Consider this as an alternate simplified/superfast template of your pages (with an amp URL). This template must respect several rules from Google in order to be displayed on Mobile SERP.
- Space occupied by Knowledge graphs and Google Ads results on Google SERPs (search engine results page).

download (4)

__TP:__ How is SEO different for an eCommerce company like SSENSE? Does anything change given that SSENSE is a high fashion company?

__AM:__ Working for an international eCommerce company is really exciting. Fashion online eCommerce is a dynamic world, for both users and search engine bots.

First, the conversion is represented by something concrete (purchases) and you want to be the best for countries you target. For example, competitors are not exactly the same between France and US. In addition, the behaviour of our customer is fun to analyze. The funnel used to buy something is sometimes…really creative! Forget linearity.

Having a big catalog of products and knowing more of what’s sold pushes me to imagine new ways to capture potential customers - how can I better use all data available on the website to develop its structure and better answer to customers without affecting the value of the company?

At the same time, I need to develop the popularity of SSENSE as a brand, locally, nationally and internationally.

It’s a lot of work!

__TP:__ I noticed SSENSE’s homepage is akin to a publication, rather than a virtual storefront like most eCommerce sites. How has that, if at all, impacted the SEO of the site?

__AM:__ SSENSE has a specific culture and this makes a huge difference compared to our sales-oriented competitors. For SEO, this is clearly a challenge because you need to find alternative ways to achieve your goals.

At the same time, nothing is static, so I regularly work on different ways to find good balance between performance & creativity in order to reach my goals without affecting culture. I know that the first page does not show the potential of the virtual storefront we have, but like I said, nothing remains unchanged… ;)

__TP:__ What are some of the most common SEO best practices that most companies/sites fail to implement? Why do you think they don’t do it?

__AM:__ The most common failure I see on SEO is the misunderstanding of the expertise. A lot of companies are still thinking that they need to rank in 1st position for 2-3 keywords in order to generate revenue. Trying to rank for keywords is NOT a business goal. You can spend a lot to achieve this, but it’s going to be a waste of time and money.

The other mistake I see on eCommerce websites concerns the rules applied to the structure of the website facets, filters, and categories. All of this is required for user experience but they also represent an open door for useless crawling, duplicate content, and SEO performance dilution.

SEO is not an exact science. Doing only and exactly what Google asks is a good start but it’s not enough. SEO requires creativity, business affinity, and technical interest. According to my experience, good SEO is, like we say in French, “a sheep with 5 legs.”

The world of SEO is small and a lot of misinformation could be found easily on the web, even on popular SEO news websites. That’s why you need to be careful. Don’t consider a declaration as a 100% true fact. Google likes mystery and nobody knows how the search engine works completely. Like I often say, SEO is 50% technical, 50% business/marketing, and 100% tests.

__TP:__ What has been one of the more challenging accomplishments for SSENSE from an SEO perspective?

__AM:__ For now, I have focused on 2 main things:

1. Change how SEO is perceived internally and show how SEO is critical for the company: like I said earlier, a lot of people don’t know what SEO necessarily is. One of the ways I eliminate myths and share concrete facts/actions is by organizing SEO workshops adapted to each department I am working with: IT, Sales, Marketing, etc. This way, people will know who you are, what you exactly do (really important), and how your work will impact them/help them.
2. Establish and validate an international long-term SEO strategy for the company: time is money and SEO is not an exception. Whatever you want to change will be accepted if you can estimate with some precision how much additional revenue it will generate.

This part is not easy because SEO is not SEA and you need to find several criteria to establish your business case. For example, after some time, we found a way to evaluate incoming additional revenue for organic search for each new backlink earned from a new domain.

__TP:__ What are some of the most impactful actions one can take to improve their SEO? What about for eCommerce companies?

__AM:__ Here are a few things you can do.

- Structure your website in a way that makes it easy to expand.
- Manage duplicate content, unavoidable in eCommerce, especially on product filters & categories.
- Decide whether you need to segment your eCommerce website by language or by country.
- Innovate in order to better fulfill user needs from search engine results by defining your business goals.
- Take care of your online reputation: for example, I care about SSENSE reviews written by our customers. Buying luxury clothing online is not an easy decision and it is necessary to find trust signals for our potential customers.

__TP:__ Are there any myths or misleading SEO philosophies you still see people following?

__AM:__ Here are some myths that I often read/hear:

- Duplicate content on the same website generates Google penalties: wrong, it will just dilute the SEO performance of your page.
- Linkbuilding is SEO: wrong, especially if you work only on this like a spammer.
- SEO expertise is a marketing job: wrong, it’s driven by Marketing. You need technical skills. It’s crazy to see some senior SEO experts who don’t know what status codes like 503, 302 or 410 means.
- Think by keyword to rank for: wrong again. You can see a lot of results on Google that will rank for a keyword that does not appear on the title. You should target a topic that is associated to a semantic field but forget the concept of exact keyword. We are not in 1999 anymore.
- Focus on the page rank: Page Rank is just one criterion among 400 or 500 different criteria.
- Delete a page on the site to remove it from the SERP: wrong again. Google has a huge brain and the search engine memorizes everything.

I just want to thank you Trustpilot for this long interview and the time they spent with me on this.

__TP:__ We’d like to thank you for your time! This was an extremely educational interview.

To learn more about Arnaud, you can visit him at [www.ramenos.net](http://www.ramenos.net/), [follow him on LinkedIn](http://ca.linkedin.com/in/arnaudmangasaryan), or [read his blog](http://blog.ramenos.net/) (in French).

request a trustpilot demo

Interview with an SEO specialist: Arnaud Mangasaryan, Head of SEO for SSENSE

Google Seller Ratings Explained

*Quick update: Google has taken down its page defining 'review extensions' as it is no longer to be an ad extension. It has also updated its ['extensions' page](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7331111?visit_id=1-636528515137673916-2799603437&rd=1) with additional information. The 'review extensions' link in the article below now links there.*

SearchEngineJournal [published an article](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-adwords-ads-stop-showing-review-extensions-january-2018/228869/) covering Google’s announcement and made the following analysis:

“This could potentially be a blow to third-party review sites, as the reviews displayed in the extensions came from non-Google websites.”

We respectfully disagree. However, they aren’t the only ones who are concerned that the elimination of review extensions may significantly impact ad performance. So this article will clearly lay out what Google is doing, what Google isn’t doing, and how that may (or may not affect you).

### Review extensions and Seller Ratings extensions: Not one in the same

Before we move any further, it’s important to make a distinction between Review extensions and Seller Ratings extensions, commonly referred to as Google Seller Ratings, or GSRs.

__[Review extensions](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/3236114)__
Review extensions are text-based reviews that can show up on ads. Users can add a review or paraphrase a review to leverage reputable social proof in ads. The text would have to be attributed and the user would need to follow certain guidelines and requirements to ensure the review is acceptable.

Here’s an example from Google (we've highlighted the review extension for clarity)

Review+Extension+Image

  As you can see, users had the option to directly quote a review or paraphrase one, as long as they made sure the review was sourced properly.

__[Seller Ratings extensions](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375474)__
Google seller ratings are also an ad extension but are different in a number of ways. For one, they are an automatic extension. Where users could add review extensions to their ads, Google Seller Ratings can appear automatically if a business has 100 unique reviews and a 3.5/5 rating or above.

Here is what Google Seller Ratings look like (again, we've highlighted what constitutes the seller extension)

GSR+image

As you can see, Google Seller Ratings provides an aggregate of reviews in the form of a rating. The extension shows up automatically - users only have to ensure they’re collecting reviews.

### So what is Google doing with extensions again?

Google is doing away with review extensions. At the time of this writing, Google has not made any announcements that would affect Google Seller Ratings.

### Will my ads continue to display star ratings?

Yes, but it’s important to note that with any ad extension, there may be other factors that might cause an ad not to display an ad extension. However, by meeting the minimum review requirements mentioned earlier in this article, you are much more likely to have your ads display Google Seller Ratings.

You can read more in our article - [“Why won't my Google Seller Ratings show up? And 4 other GSR questions - Answered”](https://blog.trustpilot.com/blog/your-five-biggest-questions-about-google-seller-ratings-answered?rq=seller%20ratings)

### Do I have to do anything?

If you don’t have review extensions, no.

If you do have review extensions, you should download its performance data to see if there are any insights you can pick up as, by February 2018, they will be removed.

If you’d like to continue showing more information with your ads, Google recommends using [sitelinks](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375416), [callouts](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7301149), and [structured snippets](https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6280012) extensions.

You might also want to look into whether Google Seller Ratings are right for you (they likely are).

### Should I get Google Seller Ratings in place of a review extension?

You read our minds. We would recommend it.

You can see from the examples above that Google Seller Ratings are much more eye-catching and inform a viewer with an aggregate rating, rather than a single review that may or may not be reputable enough.

Google Seller Ratings also have the benefit of working automatically and, in many cases, leading to significant improvements in your CTR. Google estimates that this extension can increase CTR by 10% on average.

Google Seller Ratings also show up in Google Shopping results. You can find more information on Google Seller Ratings and Google Shopping [here](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/190657?hl=en).

### How do I get Google Seller Ratings again?

You just need 100 unique reviews and a rating of 3.5/5 stars or better. Google works with various third-party review companies to feed the ad extension. Trustpilot is proud to be one of those companies.

Fortunately, if you’re a Trustpilot customer, you likely already have Google Seller Ratings or are on your way to the coveted 100 number. Reach out to your customer success manager to see if there’s anything you can do to increase your number of reviews.

### Anything else I should know?

Not really. We recommend not worrying about the phase-out of review extensions. Google Seller Ratings are much more powerful, flexible, and automatic.

If you have more questions about Google Seller Ratings, review extensions, or getting more reviews with Trustpilot, download our Complete Guide to Reviews below.

Download the complete guide to customer reviews

Get Seen in Search